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24 April 2015

That Lady In The Back Of The Room, Ms. Genovese, Has Raised Her Hand. I Believe She Has A Question.

This is a guest post by W. Fleetwood. (C. V. below.) (McThag will, under oath, deny all knowledge of, or responsibility for, its content)

This is in response to some of the responses to a video that made the rounds recently. The video showed an unidentified veteran bracing a bum ("homeless man" is newspeak for bum) and making him remove a jacket because it had an (unidentified) patch on it. There are several things about this event that caused comment, Bums, Stolen Valor, Stolen Valor Bums, etc, etc, but the ones I'm responding to here are the many firearms and self defense trainers who took pains to explain why one should Never Do This--NeverEver, or anything else. Ever!

The received wisdom of the Trainerfolk, when rendered into plain English, is: keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, avoid eye contact, walk away as quickly as you can and leave everything to the Proper Authorities. Be a good German. Oh, and if you feel like it, call 911 on your phone, that will absolve you of any and all moral responsibility. Yes people, be a good German, like the folks in Kew Gardens back in 1964.

Really? Let me get this straight Mr Trainerman., after spending thousands of dollars on superguns and superammo and spending hours and days mastering the XYZ Drill (157 rounds, eight tactical reloads, the last stage fired weak hand from a trapeze) which qualifies you to shoot it out with the entire James-Younger gang, and their horses, and a squad of Soviet era Spetsnaz to boot, when you hear the sounds of a rape/murder under your own damn window you're going to call 911 and..............What? Close the window, turn the sound on the flatscreen up to eight, and polish your IPSC trophy while you wait for the screams to stop? I will grant you that one of the grim lessons of the last half century is that if you wait long enough the screams will always stop. True, but still..........Really?

And that brings us to the thing that really chapps me about all this. Y'see........I don't believe the Trainerguyz. I really don't. I'll bet you a real silver dollar (Morgan, Circulated not Mint, let's not get carried away here.) that if they actually faced the actual screams of an actual woman being hacked and raped they would, after, yes, making the phone call, take a deep breath and, with all due caution, and all tactical skill, wade in. This I do believe.

So why the good German advice? I think I know. Over the years I've trained about two dozen people on a personal basis but I've never taken any money for it, not a dime. In fact, at the end I would give the students a five dollar bill as a start on their further exploration of the wide world of guns. Now, why would I do that? Simple, to avoid becoming the target of the terrorist group that has brought the former USA to its knees. You know, the Plaintiffs Bar. Yes, people who I have no doubt would face the reality of Winston Moseley and his stinking switchblade with a clear eye and grim resolve are reduced by Fear Of Lawyer to "eyes down, mouth shut, walk away and keep going, kid" or at least the public parroting of it.

Of course all the above begs the question: okay smartguy what's your answer? Well, I don't have a perfect one, but Florida has at least a partial one with the Hold Harmless statute. It ain't perfect, far from it, but (sort of like Floridas' CWP law) its a good start. Frankly, while superguns and superammo and superdrills, and yes, even open carry are certainly great and good things until the Fear Of Lawyer gets hammered down, and hopefully eliminated, all those things will be great hardware badly crippled by defective software.

W. Fleetwood, Curricula Vitae, (Latin for "Who is this clown anyway?): Born and raised in rural Oregon, US Army, Korea {the place not the war} and the Second Ranger Battalion out of Ft. LewisWa. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, First Bn. The Rhodesian African Rifles. Namibia/Southwest Africa, 701 Bn. SWATF. El Salvador, Commandos de Marina. Nicaragua, FDN. Merchant seaman, Captain 1600 tons steam or power, any ocean. Florida Highway Patrol, Crash Investigator. Widower and Grandparent. And yes, I personally think e. e. cummings was a great poet.